Modeling break up of capillary droplets

The breakup of capillary droplets when flowing through obstacle arrays is a complex process controlled by surface tension and viscosity, and further influenced by the presence of non-uniform flow fields. We present a phenomenological model for droplet breakup in quasi-two-dimensional systems, which is inspired by experimental observations of the thinning of droplet necks prior to break up. Integrating this droplet-breakup model into deformable particle model (DPM) simulations allows us to efficiently simulate the size and shape of droplets flowing through obstacle arrays. We compare the results for the shape of a single droplet while it interacts with a single obstacle and the size and shape of daughter droplets after break up to corresponding experiments involving oil droplets in water interacting with a single obstacle. We then employ this computational model for capillary droplets with droplet breakup to predict the droplet shape dynamics of multi-droplet flows through obstacle arrays.